Bren, a freelance photographer based in the Midwest. Social media #gardenchat guru who is passionate about growing, maintaining, harvesting and preserving food from a 2400 sq/ft traditional vegetable garden. Bren has various gardens through out her country property that included shade/ woodland gardens and developing herbaceous borders in full sun. Website:http://www.bggarden.com
Bren has written 406 articles so far, you can find them below.
Just one of those days where I felt a giveaway was in order. Anyone else sowing seeds this week? In this giveaway featured on #gardenchat live stream for Wednesday I’m giving away a few of my favorite things to sow. There is a pack of #supersowsunday lettuce from Territorial Seed Company, Butterfly Zinnias from Renee’s Garden, Moo-Poo from Haven Brand Manure Tea, Ferry- Morse Roma Tomato Seeds and a couple of Fertil natural planting containers.
As the ‘Luck of the Irish’ would have it… today is St. Patrick’s Day so I’m gonna have a little fun with this video featuring the winner!
Congradulations to the winner…. and I hope you will join us on #gardenchat this Monday where we are sharing all about herbs with Guest Host @herbgardens / Amy Jeanroy of About.com/ Herb Gardens.
I’m all about the goodies featured in the image above.
Recently, I was labeled as a Hot & Spicy pepper. Not sure if I should have been blushing or giving a ‘high five’ so I’m going to embrace my true love for peppers and enjoy the moment.
Each spring I enjoy local scavenger huts finding all the different pepper seeds available in my area. I’ve gotten lucky in the past few years finding everything from Hungarian hot to sweet Thai. Not sure if the hunt for the seeds is more fun that getting them getting them to grow but I love the entire growing circle.
This year I’ve found a few new peppers to try starting in my greenhouse here in Ohio. Something about the name ‘biker billy’ gets me super fired up to try this new hot pepper I found at Burpee Seeds.
My ‘P’ section in my Seed Keeper Kit is packed full with seeds I’ve saved from last year. If you keep the seeds in a dry sealed container you can usually use them for up to 5 years. With this in mind, I like to stock up on extra variety packets when I find them in the retail stores.
In my traditional veggie garden you will find at least a dozen plants of each pepper. Last year I grew over 100 different plants in that 40′x60′ veggie bed. Not to mention the plants I had tucked in my raised bed greenhouse landscape project. Now that is ‘a whole lotta’ peppers!’ Producing a little over 5 bushels of peppers last year not a single one went to waste.
As I opened a ‘seal a meal’ baggy of jalapeno peppers today , I couldn’t help but look forward to walking out to the summer garden and picking one fresh off of the plant. The frozen jalapeno featured in the image to the right above has been the most successful when trying to capture the fresh flavor to use in dishes and on top of dips. A popular way of preserving my favorite hot peppers is canning them using the hot bath method. I have yet to get sick of saving a pepper for another day not to mention the unlimited uses for the peppers in menu planning.
Not a fan of the vegetable okra or have you ran out of your stock from the summer harvest? No worries, break out the green beans. I used frozen green beans in this gumbo recipe to make a dinner that warmed our home and got me to #gardenchat on time!
Enjoy – and I would love to hear about your adventures with green beans and okra. – Bren
** don’t forget the white wine with this meal for the adults who will be dinning with you.
If you have property of any size it is definite that you will be or have been challenged by some landscape design challenges. It isn’t common to move into a new home and have the perfect landscape or outdoor living space. We all have individual goals and needs when living in the outdoors. To achieve a landscape that will suit our individual needs I feel we need to look at the ‘big’ picture. Pay attention to the details of your home and design a garden that complements. I truly believe it is good to have someone who is familiar with plants to bounce some ideas off of before digging into that landscape design project.
I’m excited to have Susan Cohan, Award Wining Landscape Designer as our guest host this week on #gardenchat. She will be sharing ‘design’ tricks the average gardener can use to make their garden more cohesive visually.
Award winning landscape designer Susan Cohan, APLD, specializes in the creation of beautifully crafted outdoor spaces for gracious living. Each landscape design is carefully conceived to complement its surroundings and enhance the lives of its
The designs Susan creates are inspired by a wide range of influences beyond the immediate site. From sun drenched patios and outdoor rooms to naturalistic woodland gardens and meadows each landscape design responds to the owner’s dreams for their property while respecting the environmental aspects unique to that site.
Attention to detail, sustainable practices and fine craftsmanship are hallmarks of Cohan’s work. Artisanal stonework, handmade details, and plants chosen specifically for each project combine to address each property’s unique challenges. No two finished landscapes are ever the same. Each step along the way is carefully communicated to her clients that enable them to visualize how her design will become their unified and very personal garden setting.
Susan left a successful career in the fashion industry and founded Susan Cohan Gardens in 2003 after earning a certificate in Garden Design from the English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Gardens in London. In addition to residential landscapes for private clients her concept gardens for flower shows and designer show houses have won numerous awards and have been featured in print and on-line.
My Experience With Landscape Design
This was my first landscape project which also was our first home. We had small children so I need to design a garden / landscape that was kid friendly and included a gate. Plants that could take a ball or two bouncing on top of them was a ‘must’ and a place that we could play and relax.
Today we live in a much bigger yard and would like to create that cozy feeling we once had in our first much smaller landscape. I hope to bounce some ideas about my greenhouse landscape project off of Susan on Monday at #gardenchat.
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS about creating your own garden landscape? Be sure to submit your questions here on this blog post. Qualifying questions will be answered during the chat on Monday.
It has been an amazing New Year with all the fabulous guest host and participants on #gardenchat. I’ve been able to find new ways to save all the growing information by saving a transcript and providing it for everyone to download. If you are interested in checking out details on what is going on at #gardenchat be sure to visit the link HERE.
Yesterday the fabulous and always witty Daniel Gasteiger joined us for an hour of tweeting about his new book Yes You Can! Daniel shared some wonderful tips and tons of facts on how to preserve our own food. You can find the transcript on this LINK.
We Have a Winner
YOU know I like to make it fun… with a quick little video to pick the winner of the #gardenchat giveaway! Best Wishes to our winner. Did you think I would tell you without you watching the video?! The winner needs to contact Daniel on Twitter so he can inscribe your copy of his new book. If you would like to find more information about about Daniels new book that is due out any day now by Cool Spring Press be sure to check out his webpage at Your Small Kitchen Garden.
Next Week
Come chat with Susan Cohan sharing ‘design’ tricks that average gardener can use to make their garden more cohesive visually.
I’m off to visit our friends at Costa Farms…. I hope you will follow my live shares at the link above. Tweet you in Miami – Bren
Each spring I enjoy local scavenger huts finding all the different pepper seeds available in my area. I’ve gotten lucky in the past few years finding everything from Hungarian hot to sweet Thai. Not sure if the hunt for the seeds is more fun that getting them getting them to grow but I love the entire growing circle.
In my 
This was my Sunday…. had to share this day of rest because this image says spring is truly forward.
